Synthesis and photo physical properties of Au @ Ag (core @ shell) nanoparticles disperse in poly vinyl alcohol matrix

Synthesis of core @ shell (Au @ Ag) nanoparticle with varying silver composition has been carried out in aqueous poly vinyl alcohol (PVA) matrix. Core gold nanoparticle (~15 nm) has been synthesized through seed-mediated growth process. Synthesis of silver shell with increasing thickness (~1–5 nm) has been done by reducing Ag⁺ over the gold sol in the presence of mild reducing ascorbic acid. Characterization of Au @ Ag nanoparticles has been done by UV–Vis, High resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM) and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopic study. The blue shift of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) band with increasing mole fraction of silver has been interpreted due to dampening of core, i.e. Au SPR by Ag. The dependence of nonlinear optical response of spherical core @ shell nanoparticles has been investigated as a function of relative composition of each metal. Simulation of SPR extinction spectra based on quasi-static theory is done. A comparison of our experimental and the simulated extinction spectra using quasi-static theory of nanoshell suggests that our synthesized bimetallic particles have core @ shell structure rather than bimetallic alloy particles.     

Structural phase transition and elastic properties of cerium chalcogenides at high pressure

The structural and elastic properties of cerium chalcogenides (CeZ, Z = S, Se, Te) under high pressure have been investigated by using the potential model considered up to third nearest neighbor interaction. The computed values of B1-B2 phase transition pressure, equation of state (compression curve), bulk modulus, its first order pressure derivative and elastic constants in the case of cerium chalcogenides agree well with the experimental results. The present study shows the anomalous behavior of cerium chalcogenides in comparison to the alkaline earth chalcogenides, due to the presence of Kondo effect and reentrant valence behavior of Ce in cerium chalcogenides.     

Spin-polarized first-principles study of ferromagnetism in zinc-blende In<Subscript>1−x</Subscript>Mn<Subscript>x</Subscript>Sb

First-principles calculations based on the density functional theory are performed to study the structural properties, spin-polarized electronic band structures, density of states and magnetic properties of the zinc blende In_{1− x} Mn _x Sb (x = 0.125, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 1.0). The calculated lattice constants of In_{1− x} Mn _x Sb obey the Vegard’s law with a marginal upward bowing. With the increase of Mn concentration in In_{1− x} Mn _x Sb, a transition from the semi-metallic to the half-metallic behavior happens such that the majority-spin valence states crosses the Fermi level and the minority-spin states have a gap at the Fermi level. A large exchange splitting (∼ 4 eV) is observed between Mn 3d states of the majority-spins and the minority-spins. The total magnetic moment of In_{1− x} Mn _x Sb half-metallic ferromagnets per Mn atom basis is 4μ _B. The total magnetic moment per Mn atom indicate that Mn atoms act as acceptors in InSb and contribute to holes in the lattice of InSb. Due to p-d hybridization, the free space charge of Mn reduces that results a loss in its magnetic moment. The loss in the magnetic moment of the Mn atoms is converted into a small local magnetic moments on the In and Sb sites.     

Immunotherapeutic role of Ag85B as an adjunct to antituberculous chemotherapy

Background

Immunotherapy to enhance the efficiency of the immune response in tuberculosis patients and to eliminate the persisters could be an additional valuable strategy to complement anti-mycobacterial chemotherapy. This study was designed to assess the immunotherapeutic potential of Ag85B as an adjunct to chemotherapy and its effect against active and persister bacteria left after therapy in mouse model of tuberculosis.

Methods

6-8 week old female Balb/c mice were infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis and treated with chemotherapy or immunotherapy. Protective efficacy was measured in terms of bacterial counts in lungs and spleen. Immune correlates of protection in terms of Th1 and Th2 cytokines were measured by ELISA.

Results

Therapeutic effect of Ag85B was found to be comparable to that of short term dosage of antituberculous drugs (ATDs). The therapeutic effect of ATDs was augmented by the simultaneous treatment with rAg85B and moreover therapy with this protein allowed us to reduce ATD dosage. This therapy was found to be effective even in case of drug persisters. The levels of antigen specific IFNγ and IL-12 were significantly increased after immunotherapy as compared to the basal levels; moreover antigen specific IL-4 levels were depressed on immunotherapy with Ag85B.

Conclusion

We demonstrated in this study that the new combination approach using immunotherapy and concurrent chemotherapy should offer several improvements over the existing regimens to treat tuberculosis. The therapeutic effect is associated not only with initiating a Th1 response but also with switching the insufficient Th2 immune status to the more protective Th1 response.     

Multiferroic magnetoelectric coupling and relaxor ferroelectric behavior in 0.7BiFeO3-0.3BaTiO3 nanocrystals

The structural, microstructural, polarization, magnetization, dielectric constant, and relaxor characteristics of 0.7BiFeO₃-0.3BaTiO₃ (BF-BT) nanocrystals have been studied. BF-BT nanocrystals were prepared by a chemical route using polyvinyl alcohol as surfactant. The phase structure is confirmed by X-ray diffraction and average particle size by transmission and scanning electron microscopy. The magnetoelectric coupling is studied by polarization hysteresis loops under the influence of applied magnetic field and the phase transition anomaly. The diffuse phase transition is studied by modified Curie-Weiss law and relaxor characteristics by Vogel-Fulcher relation.     

Exponential type vector variational-like inequalities and vector optimization problems with exponential type invexities

A new class of exponential form of vector variational-like inequality problems is introduced, and then the equivalence among (weakly) efficient solutions, vector critical points of vector optimization problem and the solutions of vector variational-like inequalities under the framework of (p,r)-invexity is established. To the best our knowledge, the presented results are new and highly application oriented to other results based on generalized invexities to the context of optimization problems in the literature.     

On Rockafellar’s theorem using proximal point algorithm involving -maximal monotonicity framework

On the basis of the general framework of H-maximal monotonicity (also referred to as H-monotonicity in the literature), a generalization to Rockafellar’s theorem in the context of solving a general inclusion problem involving a set-valued maximal monotone operator using the proximal point algorithm in a Hilbert space setting is explored. As a matter of fact, this class of inclusion problems reduces to a class of variational inequalities as well as to a class of complementarity problems. This proximal point algorithm turns out to be of interest in the sense that it plays a significant role in certain computational methods of multipliers in nonlinear programming. The notion of H-maximal monotonicity generalizes the general theory of set-valued maximal monotone mappings to a new level. Furthermore, some results on general firm nonexpansiveness and resolvent mapping corresponding to H-monotonicity are also given.     

Syntheses and characterization of a new class of mono‐ and heterodinuclear derivatives of boron derived from Schiff bases

Reactions of 2‐isopropoxy‐1, 3, 2‐ benzodioxaborole with equivalent amounts of Schiff base ligands having two hydroxyl groups ( 1a–3a ) yield mononuclear derivatives with one residual hydroxy group. The reactions of these mononuclear derivatives with hexamethyldisilazane in a 2:1 ratio yield heterodinuclear derivatives. All these newly synthesized derivatives have been characterized by elemental analyses and molecular weight measurements. Tentative structures have been proposed on the basis of IR and NMR (¹H, ¹³C, ¹¹B,²⁹Si)spectral data and Fab‐mass studies. Schiff bases and their corresponding mono‐ and heterodinuclear derivatives of boron have also been screened for antifungal activities. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effect of length of single‐walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) on electrical properties of conducting polymer–SWNT composites

DC conductivity of conjugated polymer‐single‐walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) composite films has been measured for different SWNT concentrations. The composite was prepared by dispersing SWNTs in the poly (3‐octylthiophene), P3OT matrix already dissolved in xylene. The conductivity of the composite films showed a rapid increase as the SWNT concentration increases beyond a certain value. This behavior is explained in terms of percolating paths provided by the SWNTs in the volume of polymer matrix. To investigate the effect of length of nanotubes on the percolation conductivity, different SWNT samples were employed with similar diameter but varying tube lengths. It was found that the conductivity of the composite films is strongly dominated by the length of the nanotubes. Lower percolation limit and high conductivity value of composite films is observed for longer nanotubes. Furthermore, the conductivity is observed to be dependent on the size of the host polymer molecule also. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 48: 89–95, 2010